Mumbai, June 11 (IANS) : A Mumbai railway policeman who attempted to battle the 26/11 terrorists with a plastic chair at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus after his gun failed to fire, Thursday identified in court Mohammed Ajmal Amir alias Kasab as one of the two terrorists present in the railway station.
Another witness, a 25-year old woman, Nafisa Qureshi, wept in the special court as she narrated how her six-year-old daughter died in her lap after she became a victim of the firing by the terrorists at the CST.
Jullu Yadav, a head constable with the Railway Protection Force (RPF), was on duty that night and posted near the southern end of CST where the offices of the Central Railway general manager is located.
In his examination by the Special Public Prosecutor, Yadav told Special Judge M.L. Tahilyani that he suddenly heard gunshots and saw people running helter skelter in the waiting hall area for long distance trains.
Yadav saw another policeman and asked him to fire at the gunmen, but when he did not, he grabbed his rifle and tried to shoot. But it failed to fire as it got jammed.
He saw one gunman (later identified as Abu Ismail) loading his weapon while the other gunman, (Kasab) shot at them. "When he fired at us, I tried to stop him by hurling a plastic chair at him," Yadav told the special court.
Nafisa Qureshi was unable to control her emotions as she recounted before Special Judge Tahilyni events of that night.
She said she was waiting with her daughter Afreen at CST to catch the Devgiri Express for Aurangabad when the two terrorists opened indiscriminate fire at the commuters and passengers.
Afreen sustained a bullet injury, while Nafisa lost her consciousness. "In great pain and bleeding profusely, she passed away in my lap," Nafisa cried in the court.
Nafisa, a resident of Kurla, was admitted to the hospital in an unconscious state and recovered after four days and was informed of Afreen's death.
In her cross-examination by the government-appointed defence lawyer S.G. Abbas Kazmi whether she had identified Kasab due to police pressures, Nafisa said: "Why should I tell a lie? If it was your daughter who had been killed, would you ask such questions?"